Social Science
Math Camp

Northwestern University

Agenda

  • Who are we?
  • What is math camp?
  • Who are you?
  • What are we going to cover?
  • Start math camp content

Who are we?

Co-instructors

Artur Baranov

PhD Student in Political Science

Gustavo Diaz

Assistant Professor of Instruction in Political Science

Aven Peters

PhD Student in Sociology

What is math camp?

Math camp

  • A (re)introduction to math topics necessary for the quantitative methods sequence

Goals:

  • Get to know you and meet your methods training needs/goals
  • Get to know your colleagues

Math camp

  • A (re)introduction to math topics necessary for the quantitative methods sequence

Why a math camp?

  • Can always use more methods training
  • More of a methods camp

Who are you?

  • Name
  • Pronouns
  • Discipline + intended subfield/research area
  • A hobby or interesting fact about yourself

What are we going to cover?

Day Date Morning Afternoon
1 September 16 Notation, sets, functions R and RStudio
2 September 17 Matrices Tidyverse I
3 September 18 Calculus I Tidyverse II
4 September 19 NO MEETING NA
5 September 20 Calculus II Sampling and simulation

  • Morning: Math (9AM - noon)

  • Lunch: Meet faculty, students (noon - 1PM)

  • Break (1-1:30PM)

  • Afternoon: R programming (1:30-4PM)

  • See gustavodiaz.org/NUmathcamp for content

Expectations

  • You are not being evaluated
  • No need to take extensive notes
  • Bring a laptop
  • Engage
  • Get things wrong
  • Ask
  • Interrupt if you need to

Questions?

Break

Notation, Sets, Functions

What is this?

  • Symbols, letters, formulae used over plain language
  • Goal: Talk about stuff in general terms
  • Downside: Harder to follow
  • Conjecture: Math is not hard, its language is
  • Solution: Practice

Set Notation

Set: A collection of elements

Numerical sets

  • \(\mathbb{N}\): Natural numbers   \(\{(0), 1, 2, 3\}\)
  • \(\mathbb{Z}\): Integers   \(\{\ldots, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, \ldots\}\)
  • \(\mathbb{Q}\): Rational numbers   \(\{1/2, 3/2, 4\}\)
  • \(\mathbb{R}\): Real numbers   \(\{-899.8, 22, 4.5, \sqrt{\pi}\}\)
  • \(\mathbb{I}\): Imaginary numbers   \(ai | a \in \mathbb{R}; i= \sqrt{-1}\)
  • \(\mathbb{C}\): Complex numbers   \(a + bi\)